New Study: Weight and Color of Your Cutlery May Affect Taste Buds

The connection between our taste buds, our stomachs and our brains is a complicated one: We know that the size of our dishes, the type of music playing and even how much we think about a food can affect how much we eat. So the results of this new study are not entirely surprising, although they are pretty cool: According to University of Oxford researchers, the color, weight and type of silverware we eat with can affect our taste perception -- a finding that could have potential use in weight-loss and healthy eating initiatives.

The study, published yesterday in the journal Flavour (Sidenote: Can I work there?), first tested people’s reactions to yogurt served up on several different types of spoons like the ones seen above. Participants didn’t know they were sampling the same yogurt over and over, and reported that it tasted denser and more expensive when served on a lightweight plastic spoon than when served on heavier ones. White yogurt was rated sweeter, better liked and more expensive than the same yogurt, dyed pink, when eaten from a white spoon; but on a black spoon, people liked the pink yogurt better. Crazy, right?

The researchers also tested people’s responses two different types of cheese, and found that they were thought to be saltier when eaten from a knife than from a spoon, fork, or toothpick. [Ed. note: I love cheese.]

Even before we put food into our mouths, we’ve made judgements about the way it looks and feels, the study explains. “When serving a dish, one should keep in mind that the color of the food appears different depending on the background on which it is presented (plate or cutlery) and, therefore, tastes different,” says co-author Vanessa Harrar. “This may also be used to help control eating patterns such as portion size or how much salt is added to food.”

The researchers aren’t making any official recommendations yet, but we’re most definitely intrigued to see where this research goes next.